Stable p‐type conductivity in B and N co‐doped ZnO epitaxial thin film

Abstract

We report on the observation of stable p‐type conductivity in B and N co‐doped epitaxial ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition. Films grown at higher oxygen partial pressure (∼10−1 Torr) shows p‐type conductivity with a carrier concentration of ∼3 × 1016 cm−3. This p‐type conductivity is associated with the significant decrease in defect emission peaks due to the vacancy oxygen (VO) and Schottky type‐I native defects compared to films grown at low oxygen partial pressure (∼10−5 Torr). The p‐type conductivity is explained with the help of density functional theory (DFT) calculation considering off‐stoichiometric BN1 + x in the ZnO lattice.